How much do emotions sell? Marketing strategy with guts

Author of two iconic advertising books, The Advertised Mind and The Branded Mind, Erik du Plessis, Chairman at Millward Brown, South Africa, was interviewed in Amsterdam by Ana Iorga, Managing Partner at Lemon Studio, a Bucharest based advertising agency, and a neuromarketing expert.

Marketing works at the intersection of a wide range of disciplines, starting from behavioral economy, psychology, anthropology and ending with neurosciences. Marketing schools cover complementary areas that enable students to broaden their perspectives, offering them a general overview of the factors that influence consumer behavior.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to interview Erik du Plessis about the future of marketing, during a conference he held in Amsterdam to talk about Emotions in Marketing.

Erik is the Chaiman of Millward Brown, South Africa and the author of two iconic books on advertising: The Advertised Mind and The Branded Mind. He also taught neuromarketing at the Copenhagen Business School.

Interdisciplinary approach

Erik was the first one to emphasize in his book the necessity of an encyclopedic-like or even holistic approach in marketing. However, he thinks it would be healthier if professional information was delivered by experts: ‘Marketing departments use the services provided by research companies, advertising agencies, media companies that all together contribute throughout their expertise to the marketing process. For the moment, a great part of the marketing activity is outsourced and I believe this tendency will continue.’

Neuromarketing research has become one of the most useful resources that can accurately evaluate consumers’ perceptions of a brand, using neurosciences techniques (EEG, GSR, fMRI) and eye-tracking glasses, together with implicit testing.

‘Implicit reactions could help the creative teams of an advertising agency gather some valuable insight or some practical directions on which to build the concept and story. However, I don’t believe EEG or GSR could help them too much, as these techniques are used at the end of the process and cannot generate insights.’

The neuromarketing expert believes that, even if the EEG and GSR research can only be used to confirm or infirm a certain direction, it can save a lot of money invested in developing new products or in buying media space for campaigns.

Marketing 3.035

According to Erik du Plessis, marketing has rapidly evolved from Adam Smith’s Homo Economicus to behavioral psychology that introduced the irrationality of the decision making process. Dan Hill later introduced the concept of Emotionomics and Kotler came up with Marketing 3.0, aiming beyond emotions, towards the consumers’ spiritual values.

Erik considers neuromarketing to be even more than marketing 3.0; it is actually its 3.035 version, because the input goes beyond the arousal level that can be measured by observing the fluctuations in the brain’s normal activity; marketing 3.035 also takes into consideration consumers’ states of mind, such as moods or personality, that are generally more difficult to measure.

‘In a psychiatry department, physicians don’t scan patients’ brains with MRI in order to diagnose them, but resort to large scale, well researched and certified inquiries.’ Thus, Erik supports a more complex marketing research approach, which can encompass the results of both surveys and neuromarketing.

Well-guarded secrets

A huge disadvantage of the neuromarketing industry nowadays is the ultra-competiveness and fight for market share, that prevent laboratories from revealing the software and algorithms they use for their measurements.

‘I find this repulsive. I have founded a marketing research institute, but I don’t just go to clients with graphics. They know I interviewed so many people, they know where I interviewed them; they know I’ll put that into SPSS and have a regression analysis. They can go to any university and study regression analysis; they can ask any Professor what regression analysis is. In fact, when I pitch my business, if they don’t know what a regression analysis is, I explain it to them. If my competitors run regression analysis and I look at the reports, I know what my competitors have done. So, that is pretty transparent. The right thing to do is to be really open. Now, these guys are hiding behind the algorithms.’

Erik hopes that, as soon as this new field develops and the number of agencies that work with their own algorithms increases, transparency will become mandatory – it will stop being about who has the software, but about who has the best software. And in order to prove that yours is the best, you’ll have to show it to the client.

We can therefore conclude that in a couple of years there will be research agencies that will use neuro techniques together with the classical research methods, in order to bring added value to the final result. And, as these agencies become more experienced, the technique that works best will stand out.

Proud Member of:

Contact Details

This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to provide feedback, analyse your use of our products and services, assist with our promotional and marketing efforts, and provide content from third parties. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms.

You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

disable

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

disable

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Targeting Cookies

These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.

They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

disable

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!